A girl unwillingly begins playing Second Life. She hates pain, and wants nothing more to wake up from the horrible dream. Then she meets a cool group of people... Full Summary inside, Rated T for violence and mild amounts of blood.

The chapter was already pretty long, so I decided to find a nice way to end it. It kinda sounds like I'm ending a story there o something, but don't worry, it's not over or anything. XD

After a few hours of explaining the basics of gameplay to me, Lolidragon and Prince had successfully raised me to level 10. I could choose my job now.

I had gained much experience in the ways of martial arts, because apparently both Lolidragon and Prince played fighting games in real life, and showed me some moves they had picked up. Prince also said he had taken a bit of inspiration from Rurouni Kenshin, to which I literally tackled him with friendly otaku love.

In any case, I had learned along the way that Lolidragon was a Thief and Prince a Warrior. I wanted to be something that could use martial arts to pummel things, because I had picked up many interesting skills. Lolidragon said that they're weren't any, except perhaps Thieves. I believe I already established how horrible of a thief I would make? In any case, that class was definitely out, so what else was there?

It struck me like a blow to the skull.

Archer.

DUH.

While I was decent at martial arts, my true specialty had always been the bow. No matter what my grandfather said about girls not being able to grow enough muscle; this was a video game! I could be strong enough if I wanted!

"I'm going to be an archer," I said.

"That was sudden," Lolidragon mused. "What made your decision?"

I laughed once. "Actually, it's the decision I should've made the whole time. I just forgot somehow the fact that I'm really great at archery."

I shrugged. "It's a good class for me, after all. I can stay away from the main fighting. The only other good choice would've been a Mage, which I wouldn't have minded, and I could've used my staff to beat people up, but Archery is just sort of... My thing. I can still punch and kick Warriors who get too close, right?" I giggled, a bit impressed by my own speech.

Lolidragon shrugged. "Sure. You don't have to go to the Beast Village, the class quests are the same in each because the area is the same."

"Cool!" I said. "But where am I going to find the quest NPC?"

"My guess is in the city somewhere?" Prince suggested, unhelpfully.

"No dip, Sherlock," I said in English. The game translated it, obviously, but they had no idea what I meant. I shook my head. "American figure of speech. I guess I'll just look around, you guys mind helping?"

Prince visibly paled. And he was already pale, because he was an albino elf. So the fact I could tell was a decent accomplishment.

"What's wrong?" I asked immediately.

"Girls." I have never known one word to carry such... Fear. I'm no introvert, and even I shuddered. Lolidragon did nothing.

"C'mon, your beautiful wife is here to protect your virtue~~" She said it with a smirk so vile and devious I could instantly see why she became a thief.

"Oh yeah, did you not beautify yourself or something?" Lolidragon said. "I noticed it earlier."

"I didn't see the point. I never really cared."

"Huh," Prince said, "That's interesting."

"Yeah," Lolidragon said, "You're a weird girl. Are you a lesbian?"

"No!" I yelled angrily. "I may be bisexual, I'm not sure, but I have a boyfriend in real life, got it? I just don't care about looks because that's shallow and superficial!"

Lolidragon raised her hands in surrender. I huffed. "Let's go."

We walked through town, looking for the NPC. I felt rather out of place following a bishie and a hot girl around, and I could tell everyone who looked at us thought the same thing.

Finally, we found the NPC. He asked me to find 10 Eagle Feathers. I was a bit confused, since I hadn't seen any Eagles before, but the NPC pointed me to the area where they could be found.

"Alright..." I muttered, spotting one. "Lolidragon, can you draw that one? If I get too close I'll scare it off."

Lolidragon tossed a throwing knife at the eagle, which caused it to have an anime vein throb and glare at us. I took two steps back and ran towards it, jumping and flipping forwards to slam my foot into its face. "Flip Kick!"

I flipped backwards after that and skid across the ground a bit. Locating its neck, I copied Prince by copying one of my favorite character's moves.

"French. It's a move a character uses in an old manga I'm fond of." I smiled. "If only Prince used more than one sword, I could teach him the ways of the World's greatest swordsman, Roronoa Zoro..." I made a dramatic face.

Unknown to me, the bird had woken up, and stabbed my ankle with its beak.

"Gya!" I cried, falling. Using my good leg, I swung at its neck again. "Collier Shot!"

"You're getting better at pain tolerance," Lolidragon remarked.

"Yeah! I won't let myself be weak anymore, I decided," I said, chuckling a bit. There were still tears in my eyes from the pain, but I decided not to let it stop me. "Toss me a health potion when you get the chance, though, okay?" I struggled to my feet.

A small bottle came flying my way; Prince had thrown it to me. I had told Lolidragon and Prince beforehand to stay out of the fight, unless I asked for help. I gulped down the health potion (for medicine it tasted pretty good), dodging the bird's tackling swoop strike. As it turned around to fly at me again, I dropped to the ground to avoid it just before it hit, then shot a kick straight up.

"One Piece." I answered happily. "It has to be the most badass collection of awesome ever told. It's really long, but totally worth it." I sighed in happiness, then shook my head.

The bird was dead, so I plucked a feather off of it and handed it to Lolidragon for food at some point.

The rest of the Eagle Feathers were gathered in a similar fashion. The birds made decent food, and eating in the game felt rather natural. I found myself rather happy with the turn of events.

Soon, however, it seemed to be time to wake up. I hadn't turned in the quest yet, but I figured it was a good idea to tell my friends that I was in the game and get them off my back. I asked if I would see Prince and Lolidragon again tomorrow.

Lolidragon shrugged. "We're actually going to move on from this area pretty soon. The monsters are getting boring. So... Dunno."

"Aw!" I whined, "But you guys are cool! Promise me we'll meet tomorrow, at least? I haven't met anyone else yet, and my friends are on a different continent..."

"Why did you choose this continent then, idiot?" Lolidragon hissed.

"I was mad at them for making me play this damn game." I pouted.

Lolidragon facepalmed.

"I think it's a good idea!" Prince chimed in. "I'd like to see you as well, Love."

Lolidragon glared at him. "You're not helping."

"It seems you're outnumbered," I teased, sticking my tongue out a bit. "Don't worry, if you really hate me that much after tomorrow, I'll leave you alone."

Lolidragon sighed. "Whatever."

When I woke up, it was morning. A little shocking, considering I had started playing that game in the afternoon, and I hadn't eaten.

I had eaten in the game... Did that count? I shook my head. Whatever.

I lived in an apartment with three other girls who go to my university. They're part of my rather large circle of friends, and they were some of those who were trying to push me into the game.

I smelled something rather delicious, which meant that Roxanne was already up and cooking. I looked over to the other bed in the room - the apartment was a two-bedroom, so we had two people to a room - and it seemed that Hana was awake, too. Since Marian was usually awake first, that meant that I was the last one to get up.

I had slept in my clothes, so I figured it was fine to stay like that. I went into the small bathroom each of the bedrooms had, slapped on my deodorant, went to the bathroom, and ran a brush through my not-quite shoulder length hair, then steeled my courage to meet my friends.

I walked into the den/living room area to a fierce video game competition between Hana and Marian.

Marian's pink hair was rather messy, so apparently she hadn't brushed it to its normal 'spikes up randomly' state. It's natural, too, so I don't really envy her at all.

Hana's long black hair was out of her usual pigtails, her large metal pigtail holders around her wrists as they always were when they weren't in her hair. They both were in pajamas, which explained why they weren't ready. It was summer break anyway, so we could afford it.

They looked up briefly when they heard me come in, but soon returned to their game.

"What's for breakfast?" I asked casually, sitting in the open spot on the couch.

"Rox is making omelets," Hana said.

Oh fantastic. Eggs. I like eggs, but my stomach doesn't let me eat them for some ubsurd reason.

"Don't worry," Marian said, "She made bacon, too."

I grinned. "Awesome! I'll just go have a look."

I got up and went into the kitchen. Inside, as predicted, was Roxanne. Her hair was already spiked up in her usual hedgehog style, her blonde bangs twisting and helping the fire effect the red dye sought out. I have no idea where she gets all her hair care products... Actually it's definitely from her parents. Roxanne's style is a combination of her parents', from what I've seen.

"You've been awake for a while, huh?" I asked.

Roxanne grinned. "Nah, it just doesn't take me long to do my hair anymore, heh."

"Of course not. The bacon ready yet?" I looked across the counter.

I spied it just as Roxanne said, "Yeah, it's over there." My mouth and eyes widened, and I grabbed the plate and started munching, going back out to the living room.

"So I started playing that Second Life thing," I said casually.

Marian and Hana immediately paused the game and tackled me.

"Friggin finally!" Marian said.

"What race are you? Do you have a class yet? Have you met anyone else yet?" Hana spewed out questions eagerly as we sprawled onto the floor.

"Off!" I ordered, my voice muffled by the floor and some hair. "Then I'll talk."

They got off, and I told them about my character.

"Ah, a cat girl," Hana said. "Suits you well!"

"So does Archer," Marian said.

"I'm not really an Archer yet," I said, "I still have to turn in the quest. As for people I met, I leveled with a couple of more experienced players. One was this hot guy, and the other was his pretend girlfriend because he was so hot all the girls wanted him."

Roxanne came in at that point, balancing three omelets on her arms. She was laughing hysterically as well. "Poor guy!" She cackled.

"I asked them to meet me tomorrow, too... Er, tonight, I guess."

"Ah, that's cool!" Hana said.

I nodded. "So, we doing anything today?" I leant back on the sofa, munching my bacon.

"Yeah," Marian said, swatting Roxanne away from trying to perv on her. "The others said they wanted to go and check out the neighborhood some more, see what kind of stuff there is."

"Ah, that makes sense."

Let me explain. We actually moved here to study at this university. I originally lived in America, then I moved to Japan in the summer after my Senior year of high school and met everyone. If you're wondering why my name is Japanese... I wanted to be Japanese so bad I changed it before my move to Japan. True story. Our university had an abroad program, so after our first year we decided to go to Taiwan for shits and giggles, and managed to get a full term with paid apartments and everything.

I don't know how it happened either.

There are thirty-four people in our group. Yeah, I know, scary. A lot of them are siblings, or couples, and we have a lot of bisexuals and homosexuals. It's a very open group.

So if you've got a problem, walk away now.

Or I'll find you in Second Life. You know I will.

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